Published by The A. I. Root Co., Medina, 0. 



H. H. Root, Assistant Editor. E. R. ROOT, Editor. A. L. Boyden, Advertising Manager. 



A. I. Root, Editor Home Department. J. T. Calveet, Business Manager. 



Entered at the Postoffice, Medina, O., as Second-class matter. 



VOL. XLI. 



JUNE 15, 1913 



NO. 12 



Editorial 



The reader will be interested in the 

 " good-natured scrap " between the editor 

 and Dr. Miller that takes place in his reg- 

 ,ular department, Stray Straws, on the sub- 

 ject of painted versus unpainted hives. 



A NEW BOOK ON APICULTURE FROM AUS- 

 TRALIA. 



" Australian Bee Lore and Bee Cul- 

 ture," by Albert Gale, late Bee Expert and 

 Lecturer on Apiculture for the New South 

 Wales Government, has come to our desk. 

 It contains about 300 pages the size of this, 

 taking up the whole subject of bee culture 

 from beginning to end as it applies to New 

 South Wales. It gives particular attention 

 to the influence of bees on crops and the 

 color of flowers and their influence on bee 

 life. The book is not wholly new, but, 

 rather, a collection of the author's publish- 

 ed articles, or those that appeared from 

 time to time in the New South Wales Agri- 

 cultural Gazette. Mr. Gale is one of our 

 occasional contributors, and needs no in- 

 troduction to our readers. 



A correction; dual introduction. 

 One of our queen-breeders, Mr. Mell 

 Pritchard, at our basswood apiary, calls 

 attention to a misleading statement of ours 

 at the bottom of the first column on page 

 372 — at least he misread it, and we suppose 

 others did. He understands that we cage 

 all the queens at the same operation, and 

 explains that Ave could not do this without 

 having the last queen mated too old to be 

 good for any tiling. What we meant to say 

 was that we might have two or more queens 

 in the hive at the same time, but caged on 

 different days. The reader will see that the 

 langxiage on page 372 has a double mean- 

 ing. Mr. Pritchard calls further attention 

 to the fact that we do not have more than 

 two queens in. the hive at a time, and then 

 adds: 



We do practice precaging about two or three days 

 before the queens are expected to be laying, with good 

 results, but we never cage two or more virgins at 

 the same time. 



honey-crop conditions ; clover prospects. 



The outlook for alsike and white clover 

 in the central Northern States was never 

 better — that is to say, there is a gxeat pro- 

 fusion of plants and of bloom. If other 

 conditions shall be right we shall have a 

 fine flow. Reports from the clover districts 

 in the East are not quite so good. Experi- 

 ence has taught us that there may be times 

 when we have plenty of bloom but no nee- 

 tar. But reports in from the clover regions 

 south of us show that the flow has been 

 excellent. One man, one of the largest 

 producers in the country, states that it has 

 been the greatest clover flow he has known 

 for many years. 



During the last 48 hours we have had a 

 cold spell — cold enough to make us fear a 

 frost. To-day, June 9, the weather is so 

 cold that an overcoat seems comfortable; 

 yet, remarkable to relate, our bees are stor- 

 ing honey. 



Further reports from California show al- 

 most a complete failure of the sage crop, 

 although experience has taught us that when 

 we have such failures there may be some 

 sage honey, and the big buyers will be sure 

 to find it. 



It would be premature at this time to 

 predict a big yield of clover honey; but if 

 we have the right weather conditions we 

 shall have one of the finest yields we have 

 had for ruany years. 



Our subscribei-s in the mean time are re- 

 quested to send in brief postal card reports 

 of honey-crop conditions and prospects. 

 Do not write more than one or two sen- 

 tences, as otherwise we can not tabulate 

 them. These reports are important as they 

 have a strong bearing on prices. 



glucose in " NEW ORLEANS MOLASSES." 



Glucose continues to be a favorite form 

 of adulterant for syrup, as shown by " No- 

 tice of Judgment," No. 1835, from the Sec- 

 retary's office of the United States Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture. (In all such literature 

 we notice that the product is called by iis 

 real name, that is, glucose, instead of the 

 nicer-sounding assumed name, corn syrup.) 



